Remembrance Day: 11-11-11

Hey Friends and Family,

Today was really special. I got to spend the 93rd anniversary of WWI in the Flanders Region of Belgium and attend their memorial ceremony.

Admittedly, the day started out a little rocky. Our train was scheduled to leave at 5:56 am. I got to the platform with literally a minute to spare but unfortunately never made it onto the train... apparently they lock the compartment doors about a minute or two before departure. I was literally standing there, the train fully stopped, but me unable to board while my friend tried to open the door from the other side. So frustrating. I ended up taking the 3 hour train ride (with a half hour layover in Bruxelles) by myself. Not a big deal but how painful is it to not actually miss your train's departure but the boarding. Ultimately it is my own fault for cutting it so close and this was definitely not the first time I've been down to the wire. Lesson learned.

Upon arrival in Ypres, I followed the crowd off the train and to the centre square. Although I missed the majority of the parade due to the train fiasco, I managed to catch the procession on their final wreath laying pit stop before they made their way to the Menin Gate Memorial - a memorial for Commonwealth War Graves. Although the other girls grabbed standing room over by the Menin Gate Memorial, I didn't want to fight through the crowd to try and find them. I joined the throng of people in the main square who were lining up to watch the ceremony on a giant video screen with sound system hooked up. They even had volunteers handing out warm drinks and cookies to the sizable crowd in the square.

There was an impressive turn out by the locals - especially given the absolutely freezing temperature.

The ceremony was similar and yet very different to Canadian ones. Firstly, it was really neat that Princess Matilda of Belgium was in attendance, as were a bunch of very important sounding positions. Prime Minister of such and such. Ambassador of here and there. There was a Canadian representative in the mix (yay!). Thankfully, the ceremony was fairly short. It consisted of a short greeting, three prayers, last post, and wreath laying. The last post was played by eight cornets, as opposed to the Canadian usual of just one. Unfortunately, one player played so consistently flat that it threw off the entire sound. It was not pretty. Another funny thing was that the timing was off. Instead of the moment of silence being perfectly timed to occur at 11:11 am, it was 11:15 am by the time we were silent.

It is just a little too ironic that Belgians are notoriously late for absolutely everything, but if I'm only 1 minute early for my train, I'm locked out. Just saying.

After the ceremony, we grabbed a quick lunch. The other girls had met some fellow Canadians (from Grand Prairie no less) and they joined us for a good meal and our afternoon activities. We wandered back to the ceremony site, the Menin Gate Memorial, and explored all the names written on the monument, took pictures of veterans and so on. I just stood in awe of how many names were written on the monument. Afterwards, we took in the "In Flander's Fields" Museum. That was definitely a highlight for me. There was just so much good information on WWI and it was organized really well. The cool part is that the Museum occupies one of the floors of the massive Lankenhal or "Cloth Hall" - originally completed in 1304, the building was absolutely devastated during the war. It has since been completely restored to resemble its original state.

Here is before war, during war, and after the war.

During the Middle Ages, the Cloth Hall, on the left, served as the main market and warehouse for the city's prosperous cloth industry

After the museum we decided to call it a day and start the 3.5 hour journey home. I would've liked to have seen an actual battle field with trenches but considering how many battles took place in Ypres, close enough!

Random notes of the day:

• For whatever reason, Ypres was entertaining the International Olympic Committee. They had an enormous Olympic flag as part of the profession. The President of the IOC spoke and laid a wreath, and one of the speaker's emphasized that on panel 19 of the Menin Gate Memorial, there is a young man's name, a Belgian boy, who was 25 at time of death but had been an Olympic hurdler. The speaker emphasized the similarity in spirit of Olympic champions and the fallen soldiers. It was an interesting comparison
• The ceremony was predominantly given in English. Usually each blurb was said in English first and then repeated in Flemmish. That surprised me.
• It was absolutely bone chilling cold. One of the coldest days of my entire life. Must be the humidity and the lack of sunshine (cloudy all day) because the actual temperature was not numerically cold. It didn't help that I had decided to dress up and wore a dress and tights. Bad decision on my part. I feel like my soul is cold.
• Although it was strange not to hear, "In Flander's Fields" read at the ceremony, the museum had it posted on one of the walls with a voice that read the John McRae classic. That sealed the day for me as a proper Remembrance Day.

Here's the rest of the pictures if anyone is interested:
Remembrance Day Album

Love you all and I am so very grateful for the freedoms we have,

Jacqueline